Shoplifter Forgets Baby

A note to shoplifters: When doing your thing, don’t leave behind any item that could incriminate you, such as, say, your 10-month-old infant.

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a hurried thief and an accomplice broke the rule of thumb when she escaped a JCPenney with $256 of purloined merchandise.

When a JCPenney employee spotted the suspect outside the store, she freaked out and fled, leaving her purse, the stolen clothes and the baby all together on the sidewalk.

The 23-year-old suspect added charges of child abuse without great harm, child neglect without causing great harm and contributing the to delinquency of a dependent to whatever fallout she faces for her shoplifting indiscretion.

If she was stealing the clothing because she couldn’t afford to buy it that would imply that she couldn’t afford a sitter. Sitters are expensive.

It’s the general assumption that people steal stuff like clothing because they can’t afford it but if retail workers are right and it’s usually middle income females who shoplift then the general assumption is wrong.

When I worked retail, nearly all of the shoplifters were women with strollers. They’d stuff things all around and under the kid, or, since we now as a society needs strollers for kids up to 7, make the kid get out and walk so they could steal more. I think it was the assumption that nobody would dare to ask to search a stroller or accuse a glowing madonna of a mother of stealing. They were usually right, but it was fun to follow them and watch it.

um…pretty sure they were just stating the fact that she “stole clothes from JC Penney”…there was no emphasis on the place as opposed to somewhere else. You should chill and refrain from calling people names when you clearly fail at reading comprehension.

I know you used the word generally, but your statement is a broad generalization, and I think it’s quite inaccurate. While we do hear about the young mothers who do a poor job, they are still in a minority.

Not very long ago most women married young and had their first children while still quite young, and I’ve seen no evidence that they didn’t do a good job. These days it’s become rare for women who aren’t in the lower economic brackets to have children young, but that doesn’t mean that most young women aren’t as capable of being good, young mothers as their grandmothers were.

I was unmarried and 20 when I had my first child, and married and 23 when I had my second. I wouldn’t suggest it as the optimal course for anyone, but everything turned out fine for my family. Hubby and I put each other through college, got good jobs, raised our children well. They’re both well adjusted, self-supporting adults now, and our daughter (my first child) is married with two children. They live close by and we’re all very close. It wasn’t easy but I wouldn’t change a single thing.

My mom married at 16 and had my older brother at 18, me at 20, then had several more. She was a fantastic mom – still is, for that matter.

HER mom was 17 when she married and started having kids. My aunts were all married before 23.

My family is from a very poor, rural area, and we were poor, but very much loved, and very well taken care of. I see nothing wrong with those choices, but I wouldn’t push any particular course of action for others.

I think your statement is a huge generalization. By the time I was 23, I was married and expecting my first child. We were also homeowners and financially secure. Most of my friends also started having kids at 23-27, after getting married, graduating from college, and buying homes. Not all of us are irresponsible twits before 30.

My mom had me at 24. She was single and had to move back to her mom’s house. It took her an extra year, but she got a BS from a respected private college and wound up going from restocking shelves at Fred Meyer to being in their corporate offices as a buyer.

She always told me she didn’t know how to reconcile the warnings of being a single mother with the reality of how well she managed. The way I saw it (and still see it) is that I came from a woman that made the most difficult situation look like a breeze, so whatever I wanna do, I can do.

That story quacks me up. It certainly seems to fit the same bill as this story. People that do this sort of thing are just fowl don’t you think? They need to go down hard, legally speaking, but some smart lawyer will probably try to prove that they’re daffy and get them off.

Hey, how did they figure out who the theif was? Did the 10-month-old infant rat her out?

OH, the story says a 16-year-old was also questioned. That makes sense – I figured if the lady fled leaving the baby at the scene, then why would she retreive the baby from the authorities later? It’s pretty clear that parenting is not a priority for her.

The fact that a 16-year-old was with the 23-year-old suspect hardly justifies a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a dependent…unless somehow the 16-year-old is a dependent of the 23-year-old.